SALADIXGS. 



261 



that is in accordance with the recognised laws of nutrition. Such 

 vegetables as are generally known as salads are the means of 

 supplying to the human frame some elements which are as neces- 

 sary to the preservation of health as the flesh-forming or heat- 

 producing matter which is abundant in richer articles of food. 

 Salads contain a relatively high proportion of mineral matter, 

 chiefly salts of potash, which, although equally plentiful in other 

 vegetables, are mostly removed from them in the process of 

 boiling, and therefore lost to nutrition, while they are preserved 

 in their entirety in the case of salads. 



Although the idea of a salad is at first sight specially 

 connected with green or partially blanched leaves, the fact is 

 that every part of plants may be used, and is in some places 

 used, as a salad, namely : roots, as in Celeriac, Radishes, and 

 Rampion ; bulbs, or underground stems, as in Onions and 

 Stachys ; leaves, as in Lettuces, Endives, Cresses, Corn Salad, 

 and many others ; leaf stalks, as in Celery ; stems, as in 

 Asparagus ; bracts, as in Artichoke ; and even flowers, as in 

 Nasturtium and Yucca ; or fruits or seed-pods, as in Cucumbers, 

 Capsicums, and Tomatoes. 



To review all the vegetables which are used for salads would 

 be to go over a ground again which has been gone over before by 

 so many learned and practical men that I should fear in so 

 doing to waste your time and exhaust your patience to no 

 purpose. I will therefore take the liberty to confine my remarks 

 to two special points only. 



First, I will give a list of the principal vegetables used as 

 salads in France, and generally brought to the Paris market. 



Second, I will insist on one of the operations often connected 

 with the growing of salading, namely, blanching, and give the 

 description of some vegetables which, naturally, being almost 

 uneatable, become by blanching most excellent materials for 

 salads. 



Our Continental conception of a salad does not entirely agree 

 with the British view of the same. Salads proper, with us, are 

 only such vegetables as form a special and distinct dish by 

 themselves, being dressed with oil and vinegar, and, of course, 

 salt and pepper. Such salads are often served along with meat, 

 but they are not necessarily a complement to it, and in that 

 respect they differ from some other vegetables which, although 



